Trusting estate agents? Who is on your side?

amyfm272

I could really do with advice from someone who knows more than i do! I am trying to sell a 3 bedroom Edwardian house in Surbiton, Surrey for my Mum. We signed a contract with an estate agent, put the house on the market for £365,000 in February. They kept asking us to take the price down lower and lower. We had an offer of £290K and panicked into accepting it even though it is much much lower than expected. The buyers surveyor said there was structural work to be done so they couldn't get a mortgage against the house. Sale fell through. There are some structural bits of work to be done on the house, mostly obvious when viewing, but we have a structural engineers report and builders quote (£8K) to back this up. The estate agents now tell us we have to take the price to £280K to sell.

Another agent has approached us saying they can get £335K for the property. We are outside our lock in period with the first agent so can move to another agent if we choose. There is a really hefty re-mortgage on the property, so in order to buy anywhere for my mum to live, we have to get more than £300K for the house.

I have no idea who to trust. All agents have negative things to say about each other, and it seems like lots of customers have differing opinions.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

pawpurrs

If the property has not sold for weeks at a lover figure, then unless your Lucky I doubt it would sell at the higher figure, now knowing there are structural problems.
You may be best to stick it in an auction if the problems are large.

botchjob

The mentality of thinking “we have to get more than £300k for the house” is just plain wrong. It’s worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Have you looked at land registry figures for the sale prices of similar houses in your area ? Try www.nethouseprices.com

From what you say the house has problems and, unless you pay for them to be fixed yourself, you’ll run into problems with every single potential buyer. So you either have to sort the issues out yourself, or take a hit in the price to achieve a sale (and much more than the £8k that’s been quoted)

It could be worth trying another agent – or negotiating a sensible rate for it to be marketed by both agents – but from what you say, it sounds like it’s over-priced for the condition it’s in. That seems to be the issue, not the agents.

amyfm272

Thanks for your reply. The structural problems aren't significant. Mostly re-levelling, and replacing guttering etc. I've read a lot of comments saying that the agent we are using tends to undervalue and push from the sellers perspective to get quick sales. There fee is based on a bracket figure agreed based on the first selling price, so they don't have much to gain by selling at a higher price it would seem.

Emmzi

is there any way at all you could get the work done? It'll cost more than £8k on the rpice as it's work + hassle cost to the buyer.

princessamy86

Well, it's their job to get you the best price but I agree that they might not make every effort if they use bracketing. I would possibly try it with another agent, I would almost certainly get the work done as you can seriously scare people off when they see that structural work needs doing. Then I would do my homework, see what houses are SELLING for, not their asking prices and base my asking price on that. Don't be swayed by the fact that another agent can get you XYZ, they have no way of guaranteeing this and I wouldn't use it as a benchmark. Would you like to post a link then people can give opinions? Some may be critical but it's a good way of getting feedback. I think Pawpurrs is spot on saying that if you haven't managed to sell at a lower price, then how likely are you to achieve a higher price.

Greenwellies_2

BEWARE!
I've had loads of EA promissing to sell my (sold) property, calling round, sending letters and even calling me where I have registered with them as a buyer, claiming to get £x for my property. I do point out that the rightmove entry says 'sold' and so does the board at the end of the drive.

What I've noticed is the distinct lack of properties, and some agents will do anything to make their list of avaliable properties look good.

Do your homework, look on that agents website, how many properties are there that are actually avalaible? if there are few it may be that there is nothing for the public to see in the window / advertise in the local paper etc.

I hope that helps!

GW

amyfm272

Thanks everyone. To get the work done would just about be possible. It's a difficult situation - my mum is 65 and not earning much money at all, so I would have to get a personal loan myself to do the work, whilst making sure we can pay the mortgage over that period. But if it would help the final price, than I can find a way.

I understand your point Botchjob. With a remortgage of £200K to pay back, being left with less than £100K to make sure my mum has somewhere to live is a scary thought! But, I understand it is the wrong mentality. Other houses in the area of a similar specification seem to sell for certainly more than £300k, some nearer to £400k.

Is it normal for your estate agent to encourage you to drop the price by £85,000 when other properties in the area seem to sell for much more?

Emmzi

amyfm272 wrote: »

Is it normal for your estate agent to encourage you to drop the price by £85,000 when other properties in the area seem to sell for much more?

Look at it from a different angle. This is what he wants you to do, in order to make your house sell.

What is he doing? What internet sites is it on, is it in the local paper, has he contacted his client list, has he leafleted, etc etc. Start by a breakdown on that first?

pawpurrs

Are they actual sold prices though, and more to the point are they RECENT sold prices?
With the structural problems, and having been turned down for mortgage purposes on this, you have to either have the work done, or reduce the price and sell it with buyers aware that that the property needs work, and is unmortgagable (if it really is unmortgagagble, then it is worth a lot less, as it limits the purchase to cash buyers) or stick it in an auction, and be done with it, but I doubt you would get the sum you need this way.

amyfm272

Our estate agent told us it was unmortgagable, than changed their minds and said that the structural report and builders quote was enough, so just drop the price by £10k.

Oh - yes the properties are recently sold at a higher value